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Transport Committee Inquiry Into Passenger Rail Franchising June 2006

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Transport Committee Inquiry Into Passenger Rail Franchising June 2006 House of Commons Transport Select Committee Inquiry into Passenger Rail Franchising Submission from pteg pteg welcomes the opportunity to submit evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee Inquiry into Passenger Rail Franchising. This evidence is presented on behalf of the English Passenger Transport Executives: Nexus, Merseytravel, Greater Manchester PTE, Metro, South Yorkshire PTE & Centro. What should be the purpose of passenger rail franchising? Passenger rail franchising should be the mechanism by which the public sector can specify the standard and quality of passenger rail services it can afford. The process as a whole should secure for the public sector the best value for money rail service that meets both national and local objectives. The process should drive up quality in particular through:- Improved train service performance Improved quality of train services (in terms of both capacity and quality of passenger environment) Improved safety at stations and on trains Improved integration with other rail services and other modes Improved facilities on trains and at stations (including in the longer-term all facilities brought up but to be fully accessible) It provides an opportunity to import best practice and innovation particularly through allowing private sector operators to make reasonable returns, act commercially and be innovative in delivery mechanisms. The overall aim of passenger rail franchising should be to deliver consistent and improving standards across the network. Is the current system achieving that purpose? To a considerable extent but with caveats relating to specification and funding constraints. The franchising process has evolved significantly since the first franchises were developed by OPRAF. They, the SRA, and now the DfT, have had to balance the extent to which services are tightly specified with allowing Train Operating Companies sufficient incentives to exercise innovation. This has led to swings between quite tightly prescribed franchises and the emerging DfT approach which is more focused on outcomes. pteg believes that services in its areas often need a higher degree of specification than elsewhere as the commercial incentive to deliver service levels and quality can be lower. Conversely, for more commercial franchises, such as East Coast Main Line, the base specification can be less prescriptive in those requirements. The process that the DfT is putting in place through its work on Regional Planning Assessments (RPA), Route Utilisation Strategies (RUS) and the Higher Level Output Specification (HLOS) should lead to greater clarity in what the public sector expects to secure for its investment in the rail network. It will, however, take some time to get these aligned. These steps and wider involvement in the franchising process through the SRA and DfT are leading to better franchises than those that were originally let. The first round of franchising in the conurbations that the PTAs represent led to over-ambitious bids, poor performance and ultimately failure. 1 The franchising process has to address the inherent tension between national and local objectives. The letting of the Northern Franchise in 2005 illustrates this tension. The basis of its letting was with no additional investment and therefore implicitly on a no or limited growth basis. On the other hand the Local Transport Plans, the statutory planning document of the constituent authorities within the Northern Franchise, contain targets for rail patronage growth which require greater capacity. In West Yorkshire the franchise was without enough capacity to cope with even existing passenger numbers, ie some trains already had more passengers than national standards and some routes were overcrowded to the extent that passengers were regularly left behind. It is likely that such an approach does not lead to best value for the public sector and it is to be hoped that the improvements that the DfT have made, and which are set out above, will be reflected in the forthcoming round of franchises in the West and East Midlands and on Cross- Country. As referred to above, there is an emerging high level strategic planning framework established by the SRA and reinforced by the DfT which sets out a clearer route for defining franchise specification - Regional Planning Assessments followed by Route Utilisation Strategies which in turn feed into individual franchise specifications. This is a good theoretical process but the problem has been that in practice the process so far has been slow and disjointed. For example, the RPA in Yorkshire and the Humber has only just started and that for the North West has yet to be published. A Route Utilisation Strategy for the East Coast Main Line was started by the SRA, abandoned and restarted by Network Rail, alongside the Yorkshire and Humber and North West Route Utilisation Strategies. The East Coast Main Line franchising process was carried out amid this process. Subsequent to its completion, competing bids for track access have been received and decisions have had to be made without the benefit of any strategic framework. The ECML access issue highlights a failing of the strategic planning and franchising process. GNER is seeking to provide additional services to Leeds and Grand Central is seeking to fill in gaps in the current service provision (through providing through services between Bradford and Halifax to London). Both of these are priorities to support the economic growth of the Leeds City Region. In part, this situation is as a result of the failure of the franchise specification to properly reflect local needs but it also highlights a significant flaw in the industry planning process. The SRA/DfT has let a franchise yet others (such as ORR) are taking decisions apparently without the benefit of a strategic framework and without reference to impacts on franchises. There is also an issue surrounding the South TransPennine service between Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham and Norwich which are currently part of the Central Trains franchises. Merseytravel, Greater Manchester PTE and South Yorkshire PTE all expressed a strong preference for this service to be transferred to the TPE franchise to provide an integrated service on the South TransPennine route. However, the baseline specification it currently proposes is that it is part of the East Midlands Franchise on cost grounds. Until the Railways Act 2005, the PTEs were co-signatories to franchises in line with our wider transport powers under the 1968 Transport Act and the Railways Act 1993. The co-signatory process has worked effectively to enable PTEs to continue to invest in improving rail services since privatisation. The PTEs lobbied strongly against the loss of automatic co-signatory rights during the passage of the Railways Bill. We still believe that the proposed new arrangements as outlined in the Draft Guidance Note between the DfT and PTEs will make it harder for us to deliver better rail services. The management style contract approach, which is effectively what the Northern Franchise has allowed greater control of cost and some degree of best practice to be developed, for example, Rolling Stock Maintenance. However, the length of the franchise and other aspects do not necessarily create the optimum opportunity for investment. Merseytravel, who have submitted separate evidence, have operated on a different basis. The Merseyrail concession is a 25 year franchise. This has already shown the benefits of investment in reinfurbishment of rolling stock. 2 What input do operators, passengers and other interested parties have into the decision of franchised services? The DfT have set out a clear inclusive consultation process for franchises which so far they have adhered to. Relevant PTEs have been involved in the current East Midland and Cross Country Franchises. The DfT has been consulting Centro on the proposed new West Midlands Franchise and they have had the opportunity to influence the design and specification. Negotiations are on- going currently on detailed issues. However, there will inevitably be areas of disagreement (such as on crowding standards) where it is likely that the DfT’s financial constraints will mean that Centro’s current specification in the Central Trains Franchise will not be transferred into the new West Midlands Franchise. The Draft DfT/PTE Guidance Note outlines a process of increment/decrements whereby a PTE can alter the DfT’s specification. This process has yet to be properly tested, and the PTEs are concerned that the complexities of contracting directly with the DfT for the provision of enhanced services will lead to difficulties for both parties, particularly where the PTE is prevented from being a co-signatory to the franchise. Has there been a smooth transition of franchising agreements from the SRA to the DfT? In general, there has been a smooth transition from the SRA to the DfT and the consultation process appears to be more transparent. Are franchise contracts the right size, type and length? What criteria and processes are used to determine the nature and length of franchises? The main thrust of the former SRA approach was that fewer franchises were better. This led to the creation of the Northern Franchise and separation of the TransPennine Franchise on the grounds that it was an Intercity-type franchise. In general, fewer franchises would seem to be better and to date there do not appear to have been any adverse issues arising out of the amalgamation of 2 franchises into Northern Rail. Indeed, there has been a number of benefits. Similarly the TPE Franchise has allowed a focus on that route but it is a relatively small franchise and as indicated above PTEs believe it would benefit from taking over the Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham service. pteg also believes that there are distinct differences between Intercity-type franchises and local franchises. It, therefore, believes that combining the Lincolnshire services of Centro Trains with the Midland Main Line Franchise to create the new East Midlands Franchise potentially creates a franchise with unclear objectives.
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